A documentary project of Living Venice e VIVA

Even though there’s a great deal of detailed research to do, we wanted to get as many preliminary interviews as possible done before Shawn departed for the homeland. We managed to corral the president of the Coordinamento delle Associazioni Remiere, a local attorney who’s been participating regularly in regate for almost thirty years (as evidenced by rows of bandiere and a pile of oars that are only half of all that he owns), and one of the founders of an associazioneculturale whose aim it is to collect, repair, maintain, and utilize boats that are at risk of ruin.

Our attorney has a library of books on the voga, the boats, the regate, and on life in Venice in years past; the co-founder was the author and/or contributor of a few of them; the president of the Coordinamento, who is also a master stonecutter (as was his father) told us the story of the sculpting of the Venetian Lion as an aside.

I’ll tell you the truth, between the three of them, they almost wrote our doc for us.